


something we must learn

by CycloneRachel



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015), The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: (spoilers for both of those seasons), Comfort/Angst, Crossover, Friendship, Gen, Mentioned Iris West - Freeform, Mentioned Kara Danvers, One Shot, Supergirl (TV 2015) Season 5, The Flash (TV 2014) Season 5, mentioned Barry Allen - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-06
Updated: 2020-10-06
Packaged: 2021-03-07 15:54:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,500
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26850229
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CycloneRachel/pseuds/CycloneRachel
Summary: post Flash 5x04, Nora and Brainy have a talk alone.
Relationships: Minor or Background Relationship(s)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 16





	something we must learn

**Author's Note:**

> surprise!
> 
> so I've been thinking about this for a while after Supergirl season 5, not entirely sure when I first realized it- but I seriously started considering it today, and after rewatching the first 4 episodes of Flash season 5, this fic came into being. I hope it's good.
> 
> Also this does take place during the events of The Purple Jacket Squad, the fic I wrote almost 2 years ago featuring these characters that should have met, but I'd say it also stands on its own.

“I… should give you a warning.” Nora starts, once she and Brainy reach one of the DEO training rooms, and Brainy closes the door behind them both. “I don’t have as much experience with my powers as my dad does.”

“That is fine, Nora.” Brainy answers, as she crosses over to the stairs, and sits down instead of anything that would indicate she’s ready for a fight, even if it is a practice one. “We don’t have to train, if you don’t want to.”

“But… you said you wanted to see what I was capable of.”

“Indeed I did.” He says. “However, since you are, as Kara would say, “feeling blue”, it only makes sense that you would not want to train as was originally suggested.”

Nora tries to laugh, but she knows that her heart isn’t in it, as Brainy stands by the banister of the staircase and watches her.

“I wouldn’t say that.” She tells him. “I mean; I guess I am. But… there’s another reason why I haven’t gotten much training yet. Or- well, I have been training recently, thanks to my dad, just not as much as I probably should have, before I got to the past.”

Brainy nods, hand tightening on the banister.

“It is the past, for both of us.” He answers. “And if what you are talking about is too personal, you do not need to discuss it with me. I understand.”

Nora turns, looks up at him, gives him a smile.

“Yeah, you always kind of shied away from personal conversations.” She says. “For most people. There’s nothing wrong with that! I promise. I completely get it. But you made up for it in other ways.”

Brainy tenses, and gains a more serious expression.

“You do not need to tell me anything like that.” He says, before smiling at her. “Apologies- It’s not often that I have been on the opposite end of this conversation.”

“The “no spoilers” one? Yeah.” Nora answers. “It’s harder than it sounds, you know? I mean, other than… certain events, there are so many things I want to tell my parents- my whole family, their friends, even sometimes random people at like CCPD or Jitters- but I can’t. I know I can’t, but I still want to _talk_ about them.”

She sighs.

“I mean, you’re from the future too, so you do know _some_ things, but because… the point is, I can’t tell you everything either.” She continues. “Sometimes, though, things just… slip out. I can’t help it. I’m a bad time-traveler, and a bad speedster.”

“I am sure at least one of those things is untrue.” Brainy answers.

Nora almost laughs again.

“You don’t know the half of it.” She tells him. “I traveled back first to see things in my parents’ lives, just observing, and nothing went wrong- so I figured I could come back here, and it would be the same deal- helping my dad destroy the satellite was just the perfect time to intervene, and then stay here in the past. I got here in May, and ever since then, I’ve been… causing things. Ripple effects- that’s what my dad calls them, like stepping on butterflies. Consequences of time travel, because things are changed, and sometimes I don’t even have to do anything for that to happen. Just because I’m here…”

“The timeline changes from what you’ve read about, or seen in museums?” Brainy finishes. “Yes, I am quite familiar with that- although in my case, some of my friends and I were attempting to make such changes on purpose, because the alternative would mean so much more death and destruction in the future. It is only unfortunate that… there were other changes, that we could not have predicted, as well.”

“Right.” Nora says, remembering how the story was told to her. “The Worldkillers, the Kryptonian witches, the Blight… and then Brainiac, and the AI plague. That’s why you’re here.”

“That is a very abbreviated summary.” Brainy notes. “But yes, it is correct.”

And she wants to tell him, too- how, even though he might see this as a horrible thing, separating him from everything he knows and loves in the thirty-first century (and it is horrible, just like her father’s disappearance), it will lead to great things. He will spend some time in the twenty-first century, and when he returns home, he’ll be changed for good.

That’s the Brainiac 5 that Nora knows- the one who helped train her, in a headquarters not unlike the one she and Brainy are currently in. And the one she hoped could be her friend, despite how little time they’d spent together and the fact that he was one of her mentors as well.

“At least that is.” She says. “It’s… nice to have one thing that’s constant, when the world is always changing around you- or when you go back and see a different version of it, and the past and the future don’t connect.”

Brainy nods, but stays silent.

“I… I said that there was a reason, for why I’m not that good of a speedster yet. And I know you said I didn’t have to tell you- but I still want to.” Nora says, a hand on the collar of her shirt. “My mom- Iris- she… was overprotective. Is overprotective- in both my time, and this one. I thought she would be different, now, before… things happened, that could cause that kind of change. But apparently not.”

“You can tell me.” He says. “I promise.”

“I know.” Nora answers, before taking her jacket off, and turning toward him, pulling her shirt collar down to expose the scar to him. It’s so small, so innocuous, that it could have been anything else, could have any cause- and she didn’t think anything of it for the longest time.

“My mother put a power-dampening chip inside me.” She admits. “I didn’t know I had powers for almost my whole life. She lied to me- I don’t know how she lived with herself. And I don’t want to hold it against her now-“

“But you know who she becomes.” Brainy finishes. “You want to make sure that she understands what she’s done to you, so that when you are born in the future, she will not repeat such a mistake. But you also worry that showing it to her will only make her more resolute in that decision, and your inhibition will become inevitable.”

“Yeah, exactly.” Nora says. “How- wait, I know. Twelfth-level intellect. You calculated my most likely response, based on how I explained it to you.”

He gives her a smile of his own, before looking down at the floor.

“That, and I have gone through a similar situation myself.” He answers, deactivating his image inducer for a moment. “My father… he thought I needed to be inhibited as well- to keep me from becoming like my mother, or any of the other Brainiacs. He feared me so much that he was willing to do that to his eight-year-old son. And sometimes, when I get angry again, or when others show that they fear me as well, I am afraid that he was right- which makes me keep my inhibitors on, and has done so for twenty-one years.”

Nora knows this- has seen him, in pictures and in person, with and without his inhibitors. But it’s no less comforting to hear it from him. And it’s different- he was aware of it the whole time, was told what had happened to him- but he, too, had something missing from his life. Still does.

She gets up from the stairs, and hugs Brainy, just for a moment. Then, she steps away.

“She thinks it’s a good decision.” Nora continues. “So does Dad- and she apologized and all, she says she gets it, but I just… don’t _understand_ how…”

Brainy puts a hand on her shoulder.

“You can show them, Nora West-Allen.” He says. “What happens with your mother is not a fixed point in time- and you do not need to forgive her, just because you may feel you have to. You only need to live up to your potential now. Keep learning, and training, and running, and both of your parents, with time, will understand.”

 _You too, Uncle Brainy,_ she almost says, just like she nearly addressed Supergirl as Aunt Kara at first. She imagines him in purple again, just like her (except, this time, a different shade) and hopes that if another version of her comes into existence, that she’ll get mentoring that’s just as good as this, minus emotional baggage.

“Thank you.” She answers instead, before the door opens, and her parents and Kara walk in.

“Hey.” Barry says. “Hope you didn’t cause any time paradoxes while we were gone.”

Nora sighs, choosing not to take it as too much of an insult, and only says, looking between Brainy and her father, “No- this was really helpful, actually. Thanks.”

“Glad to hear it.”


End file.
